In Bligh’s Hand: Surviving the Mutiny on the Bounty

After the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789, led by Fletcher Christian, Captain William Bligh and 18 others were forced onto a tiny open boat and cast adrift. It was the beginning of a 47-day, 6700km journey from Tofua in Tonga to Timor. On this amazing voyage of survival, Bligh wrote daily entries in a small water-stained notebook. These accounts range from the crew’s near-starvation to appalling weather conditions and fear of attack from Indigenous people.
A selection of facsimile pages from Bligh’s notebook is the foundation for this new National Library of Australia publication - In Bligh’s Hand: Surviving the Mutiny on the Bounty.